[at-l] Re: Maine land prices

[Bob C." <ellen@clinic.net (Bob C.)]

"...This  is precisely the reason to oppose the Endangered Species Act. Its very
design promotes this sort of misuse." argues Texas Twelve Step, who dislikes the
"oppressive" hand of government.

Well,  in  this case, government was the "victim" of the endangered species act.

The  U.  S.  Army  Corps  of  Engineers  wanted  to  take 100,000 acres over the
objection  the  land  owner and environmental organizations to build the world's
largest earthen dam.

Since  the  river  has only relative trickles of water once the spring snow melt
has  ended  the  plan  called  for  capturing the entire spring run off and then
parcelling it out gradually during the year to create "peaking" power.

Most of the New England Congressmen and Senators supported the dams -- including
Maine  Senator  Edmund  (Mr.  Environment) Muskie -- under the illusion that the
dams would produce "unlimited" cheap energy.

I  called  the  New  England  Power  Pool  to  find  how  many kilowatt hours of
electricity  New  England  consumed  each  year, and compared that figure to the
promised  output  of  the  dam.  A simple division showed that the St. John Dams
would  increase the electricity supply in the six states by exactly eight-tenths
of  one  percent. That research took a total of 10 minutes, but it helped change
the public perception of the issue.

However,  the  issue  lingered  for  years  --  until the happy discovery of the
furbish  lousewort,  which  has two distinctions. It's about the world's ugliest
flower -- and one of the rarest.

One  of  the  highlights  of my 1993 AT walk was finally getting to see the much
more common cousin of the rare version. See this is to trail related!

Weary